The War in Heaven
by Perturabo
Summary: A idea I had for a Doctor Who/Warhammer 40,000 crossover. It is more of an narrative of the War in Heaven, except the Old Ones are now Time Lords. Please rate and review


The Time Lords were known to be the most powerful and ancient civilisation in the galaxy. They had the ability to travel through time and space and command technologies that no other race could equal. However, they chose to remain on their homeworld of Gallifrey, content to merely observe and to watch, never to interfere in the workings of the galaxy. But, they were not always like this.

Aeons ago, the Time Lords travelled across the universe, through all of space and time, their boundless curiosity feeding their desire to explore the vastness of the cosmos. Utilising their time travelling technologies, they were able to cross into alternate and parallel universes. Eventually, a group of Time Lords came across an alternate version of our universe, but in this version, the universe had just come into existence. The Time Lords were amazed; an empty universe; a chance for them to shape the future into their ideal of the universe. So, using ancient technologies, the Time Lords began to manipulate and direct the birth energies of the universe, creating new planetary systems and stars, and genetically engineering new forms of life. Across the universe they travelled, sowing seeds of life on countless worlds. To further aid their expansion, they used Gallifreyan technology to build a series of tunnels in this universe's version of the Time Vortex, known as the Warp. These tunnels became known as the Webway to their creations, and they allowed them to cross the universe in the blink of an eye. Soon, they had created a vast empire, with themselves at its head; their power and prestige was unrivalled, their technology far surpassing that of their creations. Believing themselves to be masters of creation and gods amongst their thralls, a cold arrogance settled in the hearts of the Time Lords. However, they were not alone as they thought.

In the wake of the Time Lords came younger, fiercer races, such as the Necrontyr. Born on a planet blasted by radiation and other deadly energies from their star, the Necrontyr lived short, brutal lives blighted by disease and sickness. Their society became obsessed with death, and cities were altered into vast tomb complexes in preparation for their inevitable demise. In an attempt to prolong their lives and stay the hand of death, the Necrontyr turned to science for answers. Thousands of years were spent, and whilst the Necrontyr advanced technologically, nothing could be done to prolong their lives. But, they did succeed in developing a means with which to leave their blighted home planet. Using vast tomb ships, clad in a living metal to resist the erosion of time, the Necrontyr began to grope blindly out into space. Soon, the ever expanding Time Lord empire met with the silent fleets of tomb ships. Angered by the Time Lords nigh immortality, the Necrontyr turned their entire civilisation over to the destruction of the Time Lords.

However, it was a war they were never going to win. The Time Lords' mastery of the Webway allowed them to constantly outmanoeuvre the Necrontyr. Eventually, the Necrontyr were defeated and pushed back to their homeworld, considered only a minor irritant to the victorious Time Lords. The bitterness and resentment the Necrontyr felt towards the Time Lords cooled over their millennia long imprisonment, turning into a burning hatred for all intelligent life and an utter determination to extinguish it.

Whilst observing the solar activity of nearby stars, Necrontyr scientists noticed a series of strange readings emanating from around them. Something seemed to be draining vast amounts of energy from the stars, shortening their lives by millennia. The scientists theorised that the forces was some form of monstrous stellar parasites, ancient sentient beings, far older than even the Time Lords. Naming the beings as C'tan or 'Star Gods' in their tongue, the Necrontyr realised this was the weapon they had long sought to finally overthrow the Time Lords. The C'tan were beings of pure energy, the raw power of stars given form; born from the swirling forces unleashed during the creation of the universe, their consciousnesses spread across vast tracts of space. They did not pay attention to the concerns of the universe, existing simply to travel and feed on stars. To properly comprehend the material world, the Necrontyr realised that the C'tan needed actual physical forms. So they forged metal bodies from the same living metal that had once clad their tomb ships. Somehow, the enormous energies of the C'tan were compressed into these metal forms, and for the first time, the C'tan became aware of their surroundings. As they grew accustomed to their physical forms, the full powers of the C'tan were realised. Given their godlike powers, the Necrontyr soon fell into worship of these all powerful beings and the C'tan soon revelled in the adulation of their followers. They had also begun to savour the energies of living things, finding them more flavoursome than the bland, tasteless energy of stars.

One C'tan, known in legend as Mephet'ran, or the Deceiver, now offered the Necrontyr a chance to gain what their race had always desired – immortality. Their weak flesh would be discarded and they would be given bodies of living metal; remade in the image of their gods. Whether the Necrontyr ever realised what would happen to them is not known, but they gave themselves to the C'tan. From that point onwards, they were cursed, doomed to eternal servitude. The entire race was purged; their consciousnesses were removed from their bodies and embedded in cold, metal bodies whilst the C'tan feasted upon the souls of their entire race. But the Necrontyr cared not; they would live forever and were now free to pursue their vengeance on the Time Lords. Nothing remained of the Necrontyr except for one thing, an utter hatred towards all life. The race that was the Necrontyr was gone, for they had been reborn as the Necrons.

Armed with their new forms and weapons of unimaginable power, the Necrons were ready to begin their war on the Time Lords once more. Legions of silent, glittering warriors took to their tomb ships and attacked, sending the Time Lord's empire reeling, catching them completely unprepared. The slaughter was unlike anything seen before, for the Time Lords mastery of the Webway was now countered by the C'tans utter supremacy in the physical realm. Millions died, whole planets obliterated and stars extinguished as both sides unleashed forces beyond understanding. Eventually, the Necrons were able to breach the Webway itself, and began attacking Time Lord fortresses all over the galaxy.

Now that they dominated the galaxy, the C'tan and their servants turned to Time Lord's creations. With ruthless efficiency, the Necrons began to butcher the mortal races, offering their souls to sate their masters' hunger. But it wasn't enough, and soon, the capricious star gods began to war amongst themselves, either for sport or due to their insatiable appetites. Whilst the C'tan devoured each other, the Time Lords, legendary for their patience, became desperate. During their studies, they discovered that the Warp was actually a parallel realm made up of psychic energy. During their experimentation they realised that, with the right genetic makeup, certain species exhibited ability to channel energy from the Warp in the form of psychic powers. As they continued to study these powers they realised that they were anathema to the C'tan, as they were beings that existed purely in the physical realm. Creating a series of new races with this psychic ability and readying themselves for what would most likely be their last battle, the Time Lords and their psykers launched a devastating counterattack on the C'tan.

At this point, few C'tan remained, having devoured most of their fellow star gods. However, this new threat caused them to be united for the first time in millennia. Unable to combat the deadly psychic powers of the Time Lord's warriors, the C'tan instead sought to seal of the physical realm from the Warp, thus removing the source of the psychics' power. With their god like power, it was only a matter of time before they succeeded. However, the Time Lord's desperation to stave off defeat and caused to overlook the dangers of Warp fuelled power, and this mistake was about to cost them dearly.

The Warp is a parallel realm made up of psychic energy generated by all living creatures' emotions. Under the Time Lord empire, the galaxy had been a peaceful utopia and so the Warp was calm and no threat. However, with the advent of the war against the Necrons and the immense scale of suffering and death it caused, the resulting emotions of the galaxy's inhabitants caused the Warp to become a swirling maelstrom of energy; the mortal races' fear and terror giving form to deadly psychic predators. Soon, the barrier between the physical realm and the Warp burst and these Warp predators tore their way into the universe. One group of predators, known as the Enslavers, proved to the downfall of the Time Lords. Able to manipulate and control the minds of mortal races, the Enslavers used the Time Lords' psykers as living portals to the Warp, through which more Enslavers and other Warp predators came. Thus the remainder of the Time Lords once great empire was destroyed; their own creations turned against them, their greatest fortresses overrun by Warp spawned horrors.

The Warp predators soon wiped out all remaining life in the universe, leaving it a wasteland and, with nothing of interest remaining, they returned to Warp. The C'tan and the Necrons had retreated to their tomb worlds to ride out the storm of psykers and Warp predators, emerging to see the Time Lords destroyed and the galaxy in ruins. With nothing left to feed on, the remaining C'tan decided to return to their sarcophagi, to sleep until the universe bore new life. It would take millions of years but their Necron servants would protect them until it was time for them to return. And when they did return, they would begin the harvest.

However, as the C'tan and Warp predators retreated from the galaxy, amongst the ruins of his once mighty empire, a lone figure emerged. A young Time Lord had survived the catastrophe and with one last look at the devastation his people had wrought on the universe, he stepped into his TARDIS and returned to our universe.

Travelling to Gallifrey, he called for an end to the Time Lords' unsupervised journeys across time and space, describing what had happened in the alternate universe. Horrified at devastation caused their meddling, the High Council recalled all Time Lords to Gallifrey and decreed that they would never again interfere with the workings of the universe; they would merely observe and watch. Most of the Time Lords obeyed this order, but the Time Lord that had survived the war against the C'tan remained eternally curious about the universe and its endless diversity. He defied the decree, stole a TARDIS and began to travel across all of time and space, helping innumerable alien species and humanity countless times, and on occasion, save the universe. He would be written into the histories of numerous civilisations and become a legend known across the cosmos. His name was the Doctor.


End file.
